WASHINGTON -- Just weeks after lawmakers plunged into a bitter debate on the war in Iraq, during which some Democrats called the U.S. commitment a grotesque mistake, the nation's new leader was given center stage in Congress.

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, in an address Wednesday to a joint meeting of Congress, made an emotional appeal to lawmakers by comparing violence in Iraq to the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and warning that withdrawing U.S. troops too soon would be detrimental to the spirit of the Iraqi people.

"Let us not allow what happened in 1991 to repeat itself because if it does, history will not be merciful to any one of us," said al-Maliki, speaking through a translator.

U.S. troops defended Kuwait in 1991 from then-Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, but did not force the ouster of Hussein, leaving Iraqis under his brutal regime for a dozen more years.

But Al-Maliki's remarks -- striking a tone similar to one used by President Bush -- did little to soothe the partisan wounds in Congress. Democrats called his speech unrealistically upbeat, while Republicans said he reaffirmed the values sorely needed in a part of the world historically run by aristocracies and dictatorships.

A number of Democrats stayed away from al-Maliki's speech, upset by his stance on another Mideast crisis: He has refused to criticize Hezbollah for its attacks on Israel. Bush later praised him as a man who has "helped save lives."

Al-Maliki's job was no easier back in Baghdad, where he was under pressure from his constituents and members of the Iraqi Parliament not to come to the United States.

"He was caught right in the middle," said Sen. John W. Warner, R-Va., chairman of the Armed Services Committee, "But nevertheless, he made a commitment to come" and honored it.